I went flying this morning on a cold and beautiful day over Wichita. I headed Northwest and climbed to check the airplane's service ceiling. 40 minutes later I still wasn't quite to the ceiling, but I think I got pretty close.

Cutting to the chase: I flew to 23,000 feet and still had a bit more to go. I could have gone another 1,000 feet without trouble. And I achieved my personal best ground speed coming back: 255 knots.

Details:
On departure I climbed at about 115 kts doing 1,300 feet per minute.
By 7,000, that rate declined to about 1,200 fpm.
At 10,000 feet, I was climbing at 900 fpm at 115 KIAS.
At 16,700 feet, I climbed at 500 fpm (slowing airspeed to 110 KIAS)
At 19,400 feet, I saw 400 fpm (at 95 KIAS)
At 23,000 feet, I was still doing about 200 fpm (95 KIAS)

I had already asked for higher than my original flight plan (FL220) and the controller sounded like he had someone at 24,000 that would pose a conflict if I continued, so I ended my climb at FL230.

When I turned around and began my descent, I benefited from the 77 knot tailwind at that altitude and I achieved my personal record 255 knot ground speed.

Just the obvious things, I think:
IFR rating and ifr clearance
oxygen via mask (canulas limited to 18000') but no pressure mask needed.
(you need a pressure mask when ambient pressure, 100% O2 is not enough. Since sea level O2 partial pressure is about 20% of one atmosphere, you have to go up to where the air pressure is 0.2 atmosphere - like FL400 or so - before you need a pressure mask.)

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